Introduction to Genealogy

ProQuest has partnered with Ancestry.com to create Ancestry Library Edition, one of the most important genealogical collections available today with unparalleled coverage of the United States and the United Kingdom. Its valuable content is a strong complement to HeritageQuest Online.

HeritageQuest Online combines digital, searchable images of U.S. federal census records with the digitized version of the popular ProQuest Genealogy & Local History collection and other valuable content.

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Local History and Genealogy at The Waldomore

DAR membership is open to any woman 18 years or older that can prove direct lineage to a patriot that served in the American Revolution. The Clarksburg chapter of the DAR is named for Daniel Davisson, who acquired the land that is now Clarksburg in 1773.

Local history and genealogy are the focus of the collection at the Waldomore. Currently under renovation, the Waldomore houses materials of interest to all of West Virginia, focusing on the local. Family genealogy manuscripts are one part of the collection.

You won't believe how much fun you'll have learning about your roots! Whether you're an experienced genealogist or just getting started with you family tree, let this guide be your ticket to the past. You'll learn how easy it is to find ancestral details, communicate with other online genealogists, and leverage social networking sites to locate family and friends. As you piece together your genealogy, you'll also discover how to build your own website to share the information you've uncovered with the rest of your family.

Genealogy for the First Time
by Laura Best

ISBN: 1402701098

Publication Date: 2003-10-01

Here's everything you need to know to start researching your family ancestry. Designed to inspire and encourage anyone interested in learning about his family background, this comprehensive guide offers a basic introduction to the primary methods and sources used in genealogy work. Begin by organizing and evaluating the information that is readily available to you, such as documents and photographs in your possession. Explore fundamental research techniques such as keeping a research log, interviewing relatives, making charts, citing sources, and using the Internet. Find out how to utilize more advanced methods to find information such as using census records, maps, cemeteries, church records, land, tax, and military records, early newspapers, immigration records and passenger lists, and naturalization and citizenship records. Suggestions are also included for preserving, displaying, and using your findings. Plenty of photographs, charts, and lists help you embark on your journey of discovery.

Unlike most white Americans who, if they are so inclined, can search their ancestral records, identifying who among their forebears was the first to set foot on this country’s shores, most African Americans, in tracing their family’s past, encounter a series of daunting obstacles. Slavery was a brutally efficient nullifier of identity, willfully denying black men and women even their names. Yet, from that legacy of slavery, there have sprung generations who’ve struggled, thrived, and lived extraordinary lives. For too long, African Americans’ family trees have been barren of branches, but, very recently, advanced genetic testing techniques, combined with archival research, have begun to fill in the gaps. Here, scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., backed by an elite team of geneticists and researchers, takes nineteen extraordinary African Americans on a once unimaginable journey, tracing family sagas through U.S. history and back to Africa. Those whose recovered pasts collectively form an African American “people’s history” of the United States include celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock, Don Cheadle, Chris Tucker, Morgan Freeman, Tina Turner, and Quincy Jones; writers such as Maya Angelou and Bliss Broyard; leading thinkers such as Harvard divinity professor Peter Gomes, the Reverend T. D. Jakes, neurosurgeon Ben Carson, and sociologist Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot; and famous achievers such as astronaut Mae Jemison, media personality Tom Joyner, decathlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and Ebony and Jet publisher Linda Johnson Rice. More than a work of history, In Search of Our Roots is a book of revelatory importance that, for the first time, brings to light the lives of ordinary men and women who, by courageous example, blazed a path for their famous descendants. For a reader, there is the stirring pleasure of witnessing long-forgotten struggles and triumphs–but there’s an enduring reward as well. In accompanying the nineteen contemporary achievers on their journey into the past and meeting their remarkable forebears, we come to know ourselves.

Discover your roots with Family History for the Older and Wiser. This extremely easy-to-follow book will guide you through all the different stages of researching your family history online and how to record your findings. Using a case study approach, the book takes a single source item - an 1890 marriage certificate purchased at an antiques event - and uses it to highlight the questions you should be asking yourself about your own family documentation and how this can be used as a basis for online research. Learn how to: Access and investigate online records Use spreadsheets to record your findings and assess their validity and reliability Incorporate your family tree into online programs Share your research with friends and family and much more...

Your Guide to Online Genealogy The internet has made millions of records available to search any time, anywhere. Start finding your ancestors with just a few strokes of a keyboard using the detailed instruction in this book. Inside you'll find: An overview of where and how to start your family history research Detailed descriptions of the best online databases for family historians Hundreds of helpful websites to further your research Step-by-step search instructions to help you find exactly what you're looking for Chapters dedicated to finding specific records, including birth, marriage and death; census; military; land; and immigration Case studies that apply key concepts to real-life searches Ideas for connecting with fellow researchers and distant relatives through social media, blogging and newsletters Special resources for researching American Indian, African-American and Jewish ancestors Plus access to bonus online video demonstrations If you're curious about who's hanging out in your family tree, there's never been a better time to find out. Get this book, get online and get started today